Category Archives: Photography

Post navigation

I am looking for some volunteers to try a lottery experiment in the UK lottery. This is a first stage trial which will involve playing the UK’s Hotpicks game. It will cost you £1 to play, with the money going to your favourite government taxation system – the National Lottery.

I will need 49 volunteers, to basically cover all the numbers in the Hotpicks single number game with a coordinated attempt at winning. Please leave a comment if you wish to take part:

1. I will tell you which number to pick.

2. You must be in the UK to join in, as we are playing the UK lottery.

3. You will need to buy your own ticket, and if you do win, you can keep the money yourself (it will only be £5 I believe). I do not intend to ask for a cut, and this is not a syndicate where the winnings get shared out. There is no guarantee that you will get any money back.

I don’t know how many UK readers follow my blog, so it might not be possible to try this out yet.

If I get 49 volunteers, then the trial will be closed for any newcomers. First-come first served for this one.

Comments along the lines of ‘Oh, better keep your money in your pocket, the odds of winning are so tiny’ will be ignored on this post.

Like this:

Here is the matching sunset to go with my moon rise. As you can see, it was a cloudless sunset, which usually means it’s less interesting as you don’t get the amazing patterns in the sky. Lucky the moon was out…

Like this:

This morning I woke up to see the moon still in the sky. I have tried a few times to capture the moon, but it usually comes out as a blurred spotlight in the sky. The best time to take the moon is when the sky is a little lighter. Taking the moon against a black night sky confuses my poor camera, and it just can’t balance the whites.

You will also need a camera that you can adjust the shutter speed to get the most detail from the moon. Other than that, a tripod and an enormous zoom lens would be good ideas too.

For those who missed the big event of the weekend, or who need a little cheering up this Monday, check out the Whose Blog is it Anyway? from the guest bloggers at Don Charisma’s blog. There are some great comic writings on there and all of them are fantastic pieces of improv.

Like this:

Another spectacular pair of sunset panoramas for you today. These sunsets were taken on the same day, with about 10 minutes in between them.

The first, wider one, is a full 360 degree panorama, which allows me to capture both the sunset and the moon. I would have preferred the moon to be a little larger, but you have to take what you can. Made from 6 x 1 portrait photos and fused together using Hugin.

360 degree sunset panorama

The second is a 180 degree panorama taken later, hence the deeper reds. This was blended from only 6 x 1 photos using Hugin once more.